BADGE OF DISHONOR: When the top cop plays politics, PDRM can only lose the public's trust

The mass scale arrest of the Penang Voluntary Patrol Force by the police is ballooning fast into a massive public relations disaster for PDRM and is a serious collateral damage to the reputation of the IGP.

Public Relations here is to be understood as a science of human communication and not from that blinkered viwepoint of smokescreens and arty-farty sweet-nothings!

As a nation we cannot afford this and someone has to tell the police captain that disregarding perceptions while wanting to be seen to be enforcing the law, is a tragic concoction.

The place. The timing. The manner. The communication. All of these cannot be treated lightly as the alternate media has that deadly means to fast-track and channel these developments into the social foyer leading to unimagined proportions of reputation damage that will be hard to mend with quick redress.

The on-line media is overloading with criticisms against the police force targeting the IGP. The streets are abuzz with talk of Malaysia becoming a brutal police state. People are combing through the history cupboards of the police force as they strive to demonstrate their disapproval of the showdown by PDRM on the PPS.

The main stream media can go to town to paint on an all-new canvas a pleasing, logical storyline. But the action is on the streets of the new media. Even the IGP’s facebook and tweets will not spared.

The question is can PDRM continue to afford such battle scars? The Bersih episodes have already done much credibility-damage for the police force. The various political embroilments and PDRM’s good intended actions did not cook good curry either.

On a tightrope, no thanks to megalomaniac officials, politicians

Given a suspiciously volatile and precarious political climate in Malaysia – be it be between or within political parties, and compounded by global developments that will have impact across borders, can the PDRM continue to bulldoze without any professional and learned considerations for public relations parameters?

Whatever the ‘insider information’ the police force may have as justifications for their swooping down actions, prudence and calculated public relations strategies cannot be sidestepped. If used effectively and with clear intentions, the public can empathize with the police because at the end of the day every sane human wants added security and ensured safety to their lives and personal properties as they go about their task and routines in life.

There are, and certainly the police force knows only too well, many effective ways to safeguard citizens’ safety and security. If PPS is a double-edged sword, did PDRM need to wait for the Merdeka-celebrations’ march-past to make a showdown? It is academic now that PDRM failed miserably from a public relations perspective.

PDRM has a long track record in the nation’s history that makes every Malaysian proud. Dear IGP, do not let public relations strategies – deemed indispensable in today’s networked society, take a back seat as you plough the nation with uncompromised law keeping.

It would also do good for PDRM to undo that badge of dishonor, namely, that the police force is more a pro-political party vanguard and not a nation-protector without political patronage. - MAILBAG